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Harvey Weinstein released on $1M bail after arrest on rape, sexual abuse charges

May 25, 2018

(NEW YORK) — Harvey Weinstein turned himself into police in New York City Friday morning to face rape and sexual abuse charges before being released on $1 million cash bail and expected to wear an electronic monitoring device.

The disgraced movie producer was carrying three books, including Todd Purdum’s “Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Broadway Revolution,” as he got out of a black SUV and walked past the swarm of TV cameras and reporters and through the front door of the New York Police Department’s 1st Precinct in Manhattan.

“Today’s charges reflect significant progress in this active, ongoing investigation,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said in a statement. “I thank the brave survivors who have come forward, and my office’s prosecutors who have worked tirelessly on this investigation.”

Weinstein was later escorted out of the 1st Precinct with a smile on his face and his hands cuffed behind his back. He was then transported in an unmarked SUV to the New York State Supreme Court Building in Manhattan for his arraignment on the charges.

Judge Kevin McGrath set Weinstein’s bond at $10 million, with $1 million paid in cash to post bail. The judge also imposed a temporary protective order directing Weinstein to stay away from the two women whose complaints prompted the charges.

Weinstein put up the $1 million in cash and was released. The case was adjourned to July 30.

Weinstein, who handed over his passport to authorities, will be fitted today with an electronic monitoring device that requires him to stay in New York or Connecticut. He must seek approval from authorities if he wishes to travel beyond those two states.

Weinstein’s attorney Benjamin Brafman, who appeared in court alongside him, told reporters after the hearing that his client will enter a plea of not guilty on all the charges brought against him. They have known about the investigation for several months and the charges “are not factually supported by the evidence,” Brafman added.

When asked how Weinstein is doing, the attorney told reporters his client is “as well as can be expected when you are accused of a crime that you vehemently denied that you committed.”

“We intend to move very quickly to dismiss these charges,” Brafman said outside court. “We believe, by the end of the process, Mr. Weinstein will be exonerated.”

In a separate statement, Brafman said, “Mr. Weinstein has always maintained that he has never engaged in non-consensual sexual behavior with anyone. Nothing about today’s proceedings changes Mr. Weinstein’s position. He has entered a plea of Not Guilty and fully expects to be exonerated.”

Weinstein, 66, has been accused by dozens of women of sexual misconduct and has been investigated by the New York City Police Department, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, the New York Attorney General’s Office, the Los Angeles Police Department and U.K. authorities. He has denied all allegations of nonconsensual sex.

The criminal sex act charge stems from an allegation brought by Lucia Evans, who has said Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex during what she thought would be a casting call. The rape charge stems from an allegation by a woman who has not been publicly identified.

Evans told Ronan Farrow of The New Yorker magazine last year that Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex on him in 2004.

Consequences for Weinstein were swift and severe. Immediately after the first allegations emerged last October, he was terminated by his production company and expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

His personal life imploded too. Weinstein’s wife of more than a decade, Marchesa co-founder Georgina Chapman, announced that she was leaving him. Their divorce has yet to be finalized.

Weinstein voluntarily returned to New York to turn himself in rather than waiting for police to arrest him on their terms, in an attempt at “controlling the circus,” a source familiar with the matter told ABC News.

Weinstein’s legal and public relations teams realized that, in the current social and political climate, he would be indicted and arrested despite his consistent denial of nonconsensual sex, two sources told ABC News.

In an interview today on ABC News’ “Good Morning America” with co-anchor Robin Roberts, Farrow said Weinstein’s arrest was preceded by “a lot of sleepless nights” for Evans and the other accusers he spoke with.

“When I first began speaking to Harvey Weinstein’s accusers, they were correctly terrified, they feared retaliation, they feared for their physical safety,” Farrow said. “And now we live in a universe in which it is conceivable that survivors speak on an issue like this about someone that powerful and they’re heard.”